Real World SOA | David Linthicum » May 2006

May 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)

"SOA 2.0"...There is a Petition to stop it...I am not kidding.

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I was hunting around and stumbled across the fact that Neil Dutton-Ward at Macehiter Ward-Dutton has created an on-line petition asking people to send a clear message that SOA 2.0 is just another marketing term that only confuses things, per my post yesterday.

"We've created this online petition because we're dumbfounded at the attempt by certain parts of the IT industry to create and give weight to the term 'SOA 2.0'." The site states.

"We would dearly love, just this once, for things to be different. Industry does not, at this point, need more confusion around SOA. SOA has real value, but industry at large is only just coming to terms with what it means and what it can do. Inventing terms like 'SOA 2.0' might help some analysts and vendors make money, but overall, in the long run it damages us all."

This is a good idea, and I urge you to sign up if you find this kind of marketing dribble as something that's counterproductive to the value of this technology. Hopefully, those who are pushing the term will get the message and stop using it.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 31, 2006 07:00 AM

May 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Make sure to listen to the Podcast tomorrow...

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I'm going to cover:

SOA 2.0
WS- [way too much]
And answer e-mails.

www.soaexpertpodcast.com

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 31, 2006 04:41 AM

May 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)

SOA 2.0? Don't be Silly.

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Here we go again, while the paint is still wet on the new Web 2.0 stuff, now many of the SOA vendors are calling their market "SOA 2.0." It's one of the most silly things I've heard of in a long while, and both the analysts and vendors who use this term should be ashamed of themselves.

While I get "Web 2.0," because the Web is well over 10 years old and we've been successful with the use of this pervasive technology, and now we're moving to newer and more exciting stuff, thus a new version number. However, we've yet get large scale traction with SOA, thus SOA 2.0 is illogical since SOA 1.0 never existed.

Moreover, SOA is an architectural concept, not a software product, and to put a version number on something like that just shows that you don't understand the notion in the first place. Indeed, SOA is a journey, not a project or product, and to make it as such is to demean the core concept, and the value it can bring.

I suspect the marketing guys are at it again, and that’s where this thing came from. Once again the people who purchase the technology need to get involved and push back on this kind of foolishness, else you'll see it again and again.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 30, 2006 11:25 AM

May 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Big Consulting is Awfully Silent on SOA

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I was thinking today about my days working at a big consulting firm. That's a great job, by the way, for somebody just beginning their career. You indeed get about 3 years of experience in one, as you move from client to client working with a variety of different problems and people. While many I knew complained about the pace of the "Big Six" at the time, I loved every minute of it, and only left to become a CTO.

Back in the days of EAI, many of the large consulting organizations were leading the charge in methodology, technology, and service offerings. I was amazed at the number of "feet on the street" they had deployed, and thus the best data points for those of us looking to build technology.

However, today it seems to be very different. While I'm sure there is a lot going on that I don’t hear about, I'm not seeing the "big consulting" influence in SOA that I saw years back.

Perhaps they are being uncharacteristically silent on the topic these days, or perhaps they are not making the inroads I thought they would be making in the emerging world of SOA. I'm assuming the former, but perhaps you guys can enlighten me.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 26, 2006 04:04 AM

May 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)

SaaS and SOA...Clearly the Flavors the Month for VC

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I've been working in the VC world for about the last 60 days. Having been an officer of two publicly traded companies, I've never had to get VC cash, and this experience is opening up my eyes to some truths about this space and how it's funded.

While SOA and SaaS were hard sales just 6 months ago, today it’s a very a different story. Now that money is flowing back into the VC community, creating "overhang," the land grab is clearly around the SaaS and SOA spaces, and startups that could not get funding before Christmas, are finding the required capital today. Other hot spaces for VC include Web 2.0 anything, which is what any Web-based technology is calling themselves these days, no matter what they offer (topic for another blog entry).

This is a good thing; I believe that both the SaaS and SOA technology offerings have real value to the customer, in essence solving a real problem. Moreover, SOA is so far reaching that amounts of capital required are going to be above average, and the number of years to in the market are going to be long, relative to more "traditional dot COMs" of days gone by. It's a very different problem than just standing up a nice interactive Web site.

However, the fundamental value of this technology is there, and as the market works itself out, we'll find that many businesses large and small will grow dependent on SOA as a notion, as well as the technology that supports it. There will be no inflection point; it's going to be steady growth over the years. That’s the nature of complex technology.

So, the VC community is doing the right thing by understanding this trend, and investing in the right companies who can make this happen. The trick is steering the companies down some pretty intense rapids for the next few years, making sure that they remain strategically focused on the larger value of SOA and SaaS. That's how you win the game, at the end of the day.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 24, 2006 05:44 AM

May 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)

"The State of That Stack: Where Web Services Standards Are Today"

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Last week I was asked to speak at the Info World SOA Executive Forum in NYC, as well as sit in on the "Technology: The State of That Stack: Where Web Services Standards Are Today." panel, with:

Moderator: Rohit Khare, Research Director, Commerce Net
Dr. Toufic Boubez, CTO, Layer 7
TN Subramanium, Chief Architect and Director of Technology, RouteOne LLC
Steve Vinoski, Chief Engineer, IONA Technologies

And me,

David Linthicum, CEO, Bridgewerx and InfoWorld's Real World SOA Blogger

First of all I hate panels. I won't moderate them if it can be helped, and after sitting on them I always feel I need a shower. However, this one was different. Rohit did a great job in focusing the panel, and the panelists had some very interesting things to say about the state of standards.

The long and the short of the conversation was that there are too many standards, they are too confusing, and many of the standards, such as BPEL, don’t work without a ton of proprietary enhancements. Indeed the WS-* standards are actually hurting the emerging SOA space, since there are so many and the fact that some are redundant and competing.

So, what do you do about all this? Here are a few suggestions from me:

First of all, get the marketing guys out of there. Vendors are starting standards to draw attention to their products, not to help users. We're losing focus about why standards exist.

Second, the users need to push back on this, send a clear message to the vendors who are looking to create standards as a selling mechanism. If the users vote with their dollars, believe me, the vendors will listen.

Finally, let's focus on making a few standards work. We seem to get many of them about 70-80 percent cooked, then let them flounder. Perhaps that's one of the issues with having too many standards to pay attention too.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 22, 2006 02:23 PM

May 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)

SOA Expert Podcast Show 38...Connecting to the Global SOA Talk

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SOA Expert Podcast Show 38...Connecting to the Global SOA Talk

Listen to the latest SOA Expert Podcast

Presentation can be found here:

Download file

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 17, 2006 06:00 PM

May 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Should we Begin to Call SaaS, Process Outsourcing?

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SaaS is one of those buzzwords that have changed over the years. First, we called them application service providers (ASP), then just service providers, and now software as a service (SaaS). I think there is an unwritten rule that you have to switch buzzwords at least every tow years, else lose your market.

However, as I'm thinking about what these guys are becoming, I think their purpose is changing, thus the name should change. Hear me out.

In the first generation SaaS technology, the SaaS guys where standing up very sophisticated applications, typically driven through the user interfaces. In essence they replicated enterprise applications on the Web, first in a poor way, now they are actually better than their enterprise-based counterparts. Salesforce.com is the best example of that.

In the next generation SaaS technology, we are seeing a slow but steady shift to the use of services, along with the visual user interface. Over time this shift will become much more obvious. Thus, the notion of SaaS is more about providing services with both behavior and information for use within the enterprise, or perhaps with other Web-based applications (dare I say mashups). Indeed, we are not outsourcing entire applications, but outsourcing services or processes, and have the power to mix and match processes to meet the exact requirements of the enterprise.

The notion is very exciting, and something I've covered many times here before. At the end of this hype cycle, if there is an end, we'll have enterprises where some, many, or most of their processes will be served up from outside process outsourcing vendors, who today we are calling SaaS players. This will be the largest growth area on the Web in 2007 and 2008, keep an eye on this one.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 16, 2006 06:51 AM

May 11, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Thoughts on the SOA Article

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I thought that Eric Knorr did a great job in herding the cats towards the "The SOA lifecycle" article in this week’s InfoWorld. I was a contributor to this special report, and really loved the end result. Best SOA article that's been published in a long while, finally getting to the meat of the matter. Boy, do we need this.

Trying to write an article about building a SOA is like writing an article about how to get a man to Mars. First, you have to listen to everyone's opinion as to how it's done, and then figure out the best path and technology to deploy, and then the process of building the vehicle. However, at the end of the day your ass is on that rocket so you better have built the thing correctly. Those of you tasked with building SOAs know exactly what I'm talking about.

I did put some lines in the sand as to what a service should be, again based on me listening to many opinions on the topic, and man-o-man are there many. Here's my take:

"First and foremost, services must be designed for reuse."

"Services must also be designed for heterogeneity."

"Another basic concept is abstraction, which is the concealment of protocols, data access layers, and even security mechanisms that play no role in what the service offers to the outside world."

"Finally, services need to be designed based on standards."

That’s my story and I'm sticking to it.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 11, 2006 08:36 AM

May 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)

SOA Expert Podcast Show 37...AJAX and SOA Carcast

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SOA Expert Podcast Show 37...AJAX and SOA Carcast

Listen to the latest SOA Expert Podcast

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 10, 2006 12:21 PM

May 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)

The Benefits of AJAX

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The benefits of AJAX to the enterprise/SOA are clear, including:

The ability to leverage the same interface technology no matter if you're dealing with local or remote sites or applications. What's key about AJAX is that many enterprises can agree that it's the standard interface technology, and as such standardize on AJAX as the common user interface that's platform agnostic. Thus, it matters not if the AJAX interface is delivered on Windows, Linux, and the Mac. This makes deploying service-oriented enterprise applications that much easier, avoiding platform localization and testing issues.

The ability to leverage Web services using a more dynamic and rich interface than traditional browser technology. While the browser is functional for Web-based applications, the lack of interactive and dynamic behavior makes its use within the enterprise limiting. AJAX does not us the same "pump and pull" model that traditional HTTP driven browser-based applications leverage, AJAX provides native-like application interfaces and performance, functioning as good as, or better than native interface APIs, such as Win32.

The ability to quickly create mashups to solve specific business problems using standard dynamic interfaces that front services. Mashups are powerful ways of taking existing applications and services, and creating something even more useful. AJAX provides better enabling technology to facilitate the creation of mashup, combining dynamic applications into a single interface with additional binding logic. Using this paradigm, enterprises can quickly create such useful mashups as integrating Google Maps with their delivery system.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 9, 2006 08:48 AM

May 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)

AJAX and SOA...Where is the Link?

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So, what does AJAX and SOA have in common? The answer: Everything. Is AJAX and enterprise technology? Absolutely.

As we move to next generation enterprise architectures using newer notions such as service-oriented architecture (SOA), the need for a dynamic Web interface, that can layer over services is providing more value for the enterprise. Moreover, the enterprise in general can benefit from the advantages of AJAX, it's just a matter of having enterprise developers aware of AJAX, as well as the SOA architects.

Indeed, AJAX is becoming the standard dynamic interface for the Web and is adding value to SOA as well, providing the core enabling technology for user interaction, no matter if we're dealing with applications that are remotely hosted, or applications that are local to the enterprise.

In essence AJAX provides better edge technology for SOAs, or the top layer of technology dealing with the user interface. To this point, AJAX is able to extend visual service do a true interactive dynamic interface that's more attractive and functional for the end user.

I'll talk more about this tomorrow.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 8, 2006 08:44 AM